What is an out?

Counting the outs for a straight draw and a flush draw

Counting the outs when you have a nut straight draw or a nut flush draw (the best possible straight and flush that can be made, thus giving you the best hand possible if you hit your draw) is straightforward.

With an open-ended straight draw, there are 8 outs, since you will have two different rank of hands to make your straight and each rank has 4 cards. For example, if you hold JT, and the board shows Q9, any K or 8 will give you the straight. Since there are 4 cards of each rank, that means there are 8 cards that are left in the deck that would give you the straight, thus 8 outs. With an inside straight

draw, there are only 4 outs, as there is only one rank that can make your hand. A flush draw when you have four cards to a flush has 9 outs. There are 13 cards of the same suit in the deck, and if you have 4 of them, that means there are 9 cards of the same suit left. As an example, lets say you have two hearts.

Your hand: A♥3♥

Board: T♥9♠8♠2♥

From the betting thus far and the composition of the players, you are sure that someone else already has a straight, so you must hit your flush draw in order to win the hand. Any heart will give you the flush, and since you have the A♥, it will give you the nut flush. There is a total of 13 hearts in a deck, you have 2 in your hand and there is 2 on the board, that means there are 9 hearts left in the rest of the deck. There is a total of 46 cards left in the deck. There is a total of 52 cards in a deck, and you know 6 of them, 2 in your hand and 4 on the board, so that leaves 46 cards you have not seen. With 46 cards left in the deck and 9 cards that are outs, that means the remaining 37 cards are non-outs. (The 9 and the 37 are the crucial numbers for the method we are going to use when we compare the number of outs we have versus the expected pot size.)

Counting the outs when you have overcards to the board

If you have two overcards to the board, pairing either of them may be an out for your hand. For example:

Your hand: AKo

Your opponent’s hand: QJo

Board: J-8-3-2 rainbow

With this setup, you would have 6 outs. There are three A’s and three K’s left in the deck, and if any of them come on the River, your hand will be best. Sometimes the opponent will have one of your outs counterfeited, where if you hit that card, it would improve his hand as well. For example, if the opponent’s hand is changed from QJ to AJ, the remaining two A’s (there are only two A’s left now because he has one and you have one) are no longer outs for your AK hand. The only outs left are the three K’s.